Tom and I've got a club tourney coming up next weekend on Watauga Lake, near the NC/TN line. Drove over yesterday afternoon to look around for a bit and set a GPS track up into the river.

Both of us had only been on the lake once, so it wasn't going to be pretty. Got there late, had a hard time finding the marina. Drove through rain the last hour of the drive, it had slacked off when we got on the water.

The lake isn't on my Navionics chip, so I was flying blind. The lake is pretty deep provided you stay in the channel, so it was just a matter of staying slow enough for the graph to keep bottom contact.

Ran up the river until it got too dark to see, then fished a while.

Tom was throwing his usual crankbait, managed to pull one non-keeper off a dock.

About that time the rain started picking up and didn't seem to want to slack off. Decided to head back towards the marina and fish a bit there.

The lake is black as coal at night, so running back to the marina even with a track on the GPS was pure hell. Running 10-15 MPH most of the way until we got back onto the main lake and had just a bit of light. Raindrops on your face at 40 MPH sure do hurt.

Got back to the marina, didn't even feel like fishing. Don't really want to fish the tourney, but what else you gonna do?

An all-nighter in late September on a moonless night isn't going to be very d**n fun.

So in the end, we drove about 5 hours and spent about an hour and a half on the water.  Certainly not the first time we've done that and it probably won't be the last.  Like I said, two idiots in a boat.   :-[

Will you be fishing from one of the marinas off 321? I've never heard anything positive about Watauga.

Fish Springs

The only good thing about Watauga is that we only tend to fish it once or twice a year.

It'll probably take 12-15 lbs. to win it though.

good luck

Good luck guys, y'all keep a positive outlook even if it is going to be dark as heck.

Nice Title Burley but that was better than sitting around watchin' TV......Think about it, if you hadn't gone you would've been telling yourself, "Man, I bet I could've caught a PB in that kinda weather".

Now if there was a good football game on and a six pack of beer in the fridge....I feel your pain  ;D

Good luck if you decide to fish the tourney.

Big O

www.ragetail.com    

I wasn't even going to fish.  Just to drive around a bit.  I'm leaning towards fishing the tourney.  I've got a two in five chance of drawing someone who knows the lake pretty good.  And I'll make an exception to my rule and carry a spotlight.

Want to try to finish in the top 15.